Doctrine

Regeneration is not a cooperative effort between God and man. God initiates the new birth by reaching down to us in love, mercy, and grace and lifting us from our lifeless condition. We do not meet Him halfway.

Because we don’t know when Jesus will return, we must always be ready. To be ready is to be faithfully working for Christ. There is no time for casualness or time-wasting. The Master is coming. We must be working.

Within quite a few supposedly evangelical churches, we are witnessing the adoption of Catholic and Orthodox aesthetics and liturgical practices even where official allegiance to Catholicism or Orthodoxy is not claimed.

In the debate concerning evolution and the age of the earth, certain arguments I grow tired of hearing. We spend so much time dealing with silly ideas that we cannot move on to the real meat of the issues.

Q. Lately some friends have begun attending a church that doesn’t have membership; a person who simply attends is considered a member. Is this right?

A. In the last few decades an increasing number of churches have gone this route, particularly so-called megachurches. The Bible doesn’t specifically use the word member concerning local churches, and I am not going to judge those churches that do not have what we might call formal membership. However, I believe a positive, Biblically harmonious case can be made for it.

A. Samuel was to anoint a new king to take the place of wicked King Saul. God instructed Samuel to go to Jesse the Bethlehemite to find a king among his sons. Verse 7 says that the Lord warned Samuel not to evaluate the sons by their looks, “for the Lord does not see as man sees; for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.” After God indicated that the sons, one by one, were not whom He had in mind, verse 12 says that there was one son left, “so he sent and brought him [David] in. Now he was ruddy, with bright eyes, and good looking. And the Lord said, ‘Arise, anoint him; for this is the one!’”